When someone proposed a continuous audio capture in the home, some of us dubbed it the “Divorce Accelerator” for even simpler reasons than that put forth in that episode. Daily life would get ugly fast: “No, you didn’t say that, you SAID …”

Which API/framework is useful for that?
Is there any documentation available then it would be helpful.

Regarding the display: I think they actually chose the right size, for two reasons. First, the optics required to build a larger display, and especially one that wouldn’t cause weird visual artifacts when viewed through on a regular basis, aren’t really “there yet”. Bigger would be bulkier, and less comfortable. And would, thus, be the kiss of death for acceptance. Second, regardless of the quality, I think the safety issues surrounding a display that covers your eyes are immense. If you put it on/took it off when you wanted to use it, then covering your visual field would be fine. But, they want to build something that people will leave on all the time. And to do that, you either need to be able to sense an incredible amount about the world around you (to ensure you don’t block things people need to see, etc), or you need to sit it off the side, out of the way. The former isn’t possible, so the only practical option is the later.

The use case for these displays are not anything you use you phone for right now. It’s not about playing games, or watching videos. It’s about the system constantly displaying micro-bits of might-be-useful information that is based on you location, activity, who’s near you, what’s going on, and so forth. It’s about glance-able content, not “deep” content.

I expect over time that the system will pair with your phone, and become a secondary display to the main phone; I don’t believe they can build any reasonable form on interaction with it’s the way they are trying to do, and the phone (with it’s touch screen) will be a beautiful complement to it.

But, regardless of where it goes in the future, the Glasses are about entirely new forms of interaction, and new kinds of applications. They aren’t about moving what you do on your phone or laptop onto the display (except for those things that currently suck on the phone, and would be better up there!

What interests me about this project, though, is not so much that this is most certainly not going to be an AR project, which doesn’t bother me at all – I am happy for the final product (version 1.0) to be a 2D HUD display – but the fact that they choose to use that tiny little display just above the eye. Wouldn’t it make more sense to just build a larger display that covers the whole eye? I mean that, for me, (not the camera, etc.) is what I would like as a consumer. I’m surprised that they can build a 2cm x 2cm display yet not create one the size of a standard glass lens. (Perhaps I don’t understand the dynamics here. Does this somehow project onto the eye creating a larger image?)

My impression, and please jump in anytime to correct me here, is that the finalized display will be about a thumb sized viewing area over top of the eye. This seems like it would be pointless for a large number of different activities: The main ones being viewing the web or playing games, which is what most people buy a smart phone for in my opinion. Also, viewing YouTube at that size or watching a movie with subtitles (or the translation app that is being touted so highly on the internet right now) would be difficult. There is also the element of eyestrain. Wouldn’t the design of the display require the user to be constantly looking upwards when using it? That doesn’t sound good for one’s eyes.

Basically, I am rather excited by the potential, but all I see from Google is a camera that one wears on their head that has various features similar to a smartphone, yet a screen too small to be usable. As a consumer and a lover of technology, I am highly saddened by that concept, but at the same time I respect that this is not a simple creation. There is a ton of R&D going on and Google is obviously trying to make this a workable project. That said, as the display cannot live up to any reasonable expectations I might have of a smartphone like device (such as internet browsing, gaming, even messaging in long form or email), it is hard to not feel that this will go down as a product failure for Google.

(I am also quite fascinated by the concept of a VRD – thank you for the education folks. I have my doubts that they could miniaturize the technologies; however, the device as it stands looks like it could accommodate a small projector above the eye for this purpose. The lens itself could be a temporary measure to avoid showing their trump card – or not.)